swing and a trade

it's time for an overdue trade post.  this one features cards i received from bert at swing and a pop up last year.  i was able to help out with some of his set needs, and he sent me some dodgers in return.  works for me.

here's a 1985 donruss alejandro pena

quick - what does pena have in common with dazzy vance, johnny podres, sandy koufax, don sutton, kevin brown, and clayton kershaw?  well, beside the fact that they all pitched for the same franchise, they are the only brooklyn/los angeles pitchers to have led the league in era.  pena was the leader in 1984, the only season in which he was used exclusively as a starter.  unfortunately, he hurt his shoulder late in the season and didn't return until the end of the 1985 season.  he wound up in the bullpen, and was the winning pitcher in game 1 of the 1988 world series thanks to kirk gibson.

now for a 1988 kmart pedro guerrero card

pena missed out on guerrero's scorcher of a june in 1985, but i didn't.

it was awesome.

i had thought that there was a chance that the dodgers would break their rookie of the year drought last year with yasiel puig.  it didn't happen (maybe this year with alexander guerrero?).  here's the guy who started the run of roys in the 1990's, eric karros, on a 1993 score card celebrating his award

karros eventually was traded to the cubs, and the dodgers replaced him with fred mcgriff.  here's his 2004 topps opening day card

this was kind of like 1989 when steve sax went to the yankees to replace willie randolph, and willie randolph went to the dodgers to replace steve sax.  i was among those that thought mcgriff would hit his 500th home run as a dodger (he needed 22), but he was limited to 86 games and hit only 13 bombs. that was still one more than karros hit for the cubs, and they each drove in 40 for their respective teams. karros did have that big home run to deny roger clemens his 300th win when the yankees visited wrigley field for the first time since the world series in 1932.

here's a 2004 upper deck sweet spot classic jackie robinson

one of four or five cards he has in the set, i believe.  i have added the one that i still need to my 'nefarious 9' (which now stands at only 3 cards. i'm working on it!).  send one my way, and you will be rewarded.

i still miss russell martin.  here's his 2007 topps allen & ginter card

and here's a 2008 upper deck sp authentic card on which he shares space with the padres' jake peavy

cards like this give me pause.  did upper deck put these two together for a reason? or were they just (at the time) high profile or in this case up and coming division rivals?  for the record, through 2013, russell martin has faced only two pitchers more than jake peavy (dan haren and matt cain).  in 39 plate appearances, martin has only 4 hits (one double), no rbi, and 11 strikeouts.  advantage, peavy.

before there were blue borders, there were walmart black parallels, like this 2010 topps andre ethier card

and before that, it was pinnacle that ruled the black-bordered world.  here's a 2013 panini pinnacle card of carl crawford that brings to mind those releases from the early 1990's.

bert - thanks for a great trade.  let's do it again sometime.

hey! i'm going to a card show tomorrow. need anything?

let's see who's up late tonight…

i haven't been to a show in quite a while.  i'm not sure what i will find, but i'll probably spend a fair amount of time with the vintage bargain bins - primarily the 1950's.  i hope the off condition vintage guy is there, but i doubt he would come back from his new home in the south for this ridiculously cold weather.  still, i'll be looking for bargains.

i've been known to pick up a thing or two upon request, so let me know what you might be looking for in the comments.  i'm sure we can work out a trade.  in the meantime, here are some 1960 topps dodgers for your viewing pleasure.  these four helped finish off my team set sometime early last year.

welcome to the blog, johnny klippstein.

i haven't featured klippstein before, which is too bad because it is fun to say klippstein as i type it.  klippstein.  johnny was one of the guys that the dodgers got from the reds in the don newcombe trade.  he pitched for them in the 1959 world series, allowing 1 hit and no runs in two innings of mop up work in the game 1 disaster.  a few years later, he pitched against the dodgers in the 1965 world series as a member of the twins.

here's another newbie to the blog, rip repulski.

rip's real name was eldon.  he hailed from sauk rapids, mn (which is not to be confused with sauk centre, mn - that's sinclair lewis territory) just outside saint cloud.  i drove through there last week, as a matter of fact.  anyway, repulski came to the dodgers from the phillies as part of the return for george 'sparky' anderson.  like klippstein, repulski is fun to say and type.  and, like klippstein, he made a singular appearance in the 1959 world series.  he was intentionally walked in the 8th inning of game 5 to load the bases.  the strategy worked, as the white sox got out of the inning and beat the dodgers and sandy koufax 1-0.  the dodgers wound up trading repulski early in the 1960 season to the red sox who were going to be in need of a left fielder in 1961.  once yaz established himself, however, repulski was released.

now here are ed roebuck

(i sure hope his nickname was 'sears') and norm sherry

those two cards are high numbers - up in the 500's.  i've featured both these guys on the blog before, so i won't say much more than that.  i don't know if i've said anything substantial about them, but it's late and i plan to hit the show early.  so, whaddayawant? leave it in the comments and maybe i'll take a look in the morning.

an atomic bison needs some friends

what a crazy atomic refractor kaleidoscope matt kemp card from 2011 topps chrome.

i look at this card and wait for the animated partridge family or brady bunch to come walking out.  i also have one of these featuring ivan dejesus, but i want more.

here are the ones i need

4 andre ethier
47 james loney
107 clayton kershaw
153 jonathan broxton
167 chad billingsley
169 rafael furcal
211 jerry sands
212 dee gordon

if you have any of these to trade, or know where you can find some, i will make it worth your while.  vintage style.

waiting for bills

i hope you didn't overdo the spending this past holiday season.  i think i did ok, so the title of this post isn't in reference to having to pay the piper in january.  rather, it refers to the lack of a healthy chad billingsley on the dodger roster.

i was at the game in august of 2012 wherein billingsley was injured.  as he walked off the mound in the fourth inning, i hoped that it was nothing serious.  he wound up missing the rest of the season.  billingsley was able to avoid surgery, however, and returned in april of last year.  two starts into the season he was shut down and underwent tommy john surgery.

billingsley will start the 2014 season on the 60-day dl, but should be back in time for the stretch run.  it would be great for the dodgers to get a pitcher of his caliber at that time in the season, so i hope he comes back, and comes back healthy and effective.

i have a bunch of billingsley cards that i've scanned at one time or another that haven't made it to print yet.  today is their lucky day.  this one is from 2009 topps ticket to stardom, and it features billingsley, a piece of his jersey, and a piece of a dodger game ticket stub.

this is the second one of these that i have - the other one looks the same but the ticket stub is from a different game - one in which billingsley actually started.  i assumed that they were all that way, but the game that this stub is from was a brad penny game.

here's a bills rookie card from 2006 upper deck update. 

that set has a few key dodger rookies in it - broxton, kemp, ethier, martin.  i recall buying a couple of packs when it hit the shelves, but didn't really pay much attention to it.  when i went back a couple of years ago to fill my dodger team set, i lamented the fact that i hadn't bothered to buy more packs at the time.

here's a 2010 topps turkey red insert

i am glad that we've seen the last of the turkey red cards.  except that i just remembered that they were still around in 2013 - you just had to go online to buy them.

this is a 2011 topps update toppstown insert

are we done with these, too?  i miss a base set without a ton (or any) inserts.

i sent some cards to billingsley back in 2010, and he signed them for me in fairly short order.

2007 fleer

2007 topps

2009 topps 206

and 2009 upper deck sp legendary cuts

billingsley has a pretty hefty team option on his contract for 2015, and his uncertain status makes it all the more tempting for the dodgers to pay the buyout.  like i mentioned up top, i hope that he comes back healthy and effective, and makes his contract decision a little tougher for ned.

thanks for signing my cards chad!

i'm sure it's a very pleasant good evening, wherever he may be

and i know exactly where he is - vin scully is the grand marshal of the 125th tournament of roses parade in pasadena today.  if memory serves, that means that the dodgers' hall of fame broadcaster will participate in the coin toss before the rose bowl.  i never did make it to the rose parade in all my socal years, but i did help decorate a float one year, and i attended a rose bowl game in the early '90's (michigan beat washington).  angela lansbury was the grand marshal of the parade that year, for what it's worth.

here are some cards of vinny that i picked up last year - first up is his base from 2013 panini cooperstown

the back of which provides the line score of the 1988 world series game 1

yes, scully is paid to be objective.  i wish more broadcasters would earn their money that way, too.

here are some parallels of vin.  i am not sure what they are called, but i snagged 'em anyway.  this one is green-ish

and this one is more blue.

i might as well show a few more of the dodgers i picked up from the set, like zack wheat

wheat is a guy that doesn't seem to get a whole lot of attention when it comes to the dodger franchise celebrating its past.  it seems to me that the franchise focuses mainly on the players who fell within the walter o'malley regime (1951 through 1979).  this makes some sense because the o'malleys owned the team until it was sold to fox, and they did well to establish and market the franchise.  fox didn't give a rip, and the mccourts didn't seem to care too much about the team's history either.  today, the new ownership seems to understand the importance of connecting different generations of fans, but i'm not sure that we will see a brooklyn 'b' for wheat out in the pavilions among the retired numbers the way that the giants used to have the 'ny' circles for the likes of christy mathewson and john mcgraw on the walls at candlestick.

here's jackie robinson

in a kansas city monarch uniform

and here's pee wee reese

which means that duke snider can't be too far behind.

the induction inserts are pretty cool.  duke joined the hall of fame in 1980.  he was the first dodger inducted since sandy koufax in 1972.  unfortunately, there wasn't a koufax card in the set.

kemp and kershaw go together like a horse and carriage

happy new year!  i'm not making any resolutions, but i would like to see the dodgers' front office resolve to give clayton kershaw what he wants and sign him to an extension, and also resolve to not trade matt kemp.  i am willing to hitch the team's fortunes to these two guys and see what happens.

with that, let's have a look at a few kershaw and kemp cards that i've been scanning but not posting for a while.  we'll start with a 2011 panini playoff contenders combo card of the two

here's another combo card - these two are like peas and carrots - this one is from 2013 topps heritage

now for some shiny solo stuff - 2013 topps finest kershaw

and kemp

and a kemp refractor

2013 topps tribute kershaw

and kemp

here's a 2011 bowman international parallel, reminding us that kershaw is from texas.

kemp's home state of oklahoma also makes an appearance on that card.  see?  they're even neighbors!

here's a matt kemp 2012 topps mini card that was handed out at the national convention

now for a 2010 upper deck biography kershaw

and a 2011 topps marquee kemp - the blue parallel version

here's a 2010 bowman chrome kershaw

and a 2010 bowman platinum kemp

obviously, most of kemp's cards show him with a bat, but he does have a few that show him fielding or on the bases.  pretty much all of kershaw's cards show him pitching.  i'm hoping that 2014 opening day at least shows him at the plate delivering his 2013 opening day home run against the giants.  but if the rest of his cards show him pitching in dodger stadium like this 2011 bowman finest futures card, i won't complain.

here's a black bordered 2008 topps allen & ginter kemp mini that i picked up on sportlots for 18 cents a couple months ago.

and here's a 2009 upper deck goodwin champions kershaw that i've had scanned for a while

just a few more - 2013 bowman platinum kemp

and 2009 upper deck signature stars kershaw

and last but not least - some 2013 topps stickers of kemp

and kershaw

man, do i hope these two stick together with the dodgers.  in 2014 and beyond.